A. Field of the Invention.
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a transporter for a baby, and more particularly, the embodiments of the present invention relate to a transporter with integral media entertainment and education center for a baby.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Child development studies have clearly demonstrated the benefits of early visual and audio stimulation for entertainment and education. Furthermore, such visual stimulation must be presented within the visual field of the infant, be of a form the infant can perceive, and be for a suitable period of time.
Infants between birth and six months of age typically spend a significant amount of time lying on their backs, facing upwards, in strollers. This position is now considered the healthiest for infants. While positioned in a stroller, an infant has nothing to provide visual and/or audio stimuli, except the inside of the stroller hood as manufactured. This customarily fails to meet the requirements for maximizing entertainment and education.
Conventional methods and apparatus for visual and audio stimulation of infants, such as crib mobiles, books, flash cards, and television are impractical, inappropriate, and/or ineffective for infants lying on their backs, facing upwards, in strollers.
Crib mobiles allow an infant lying under them only to view their underside. This is typically small in surface area and limited in use. While typically entertaining to adults located nearby, mobiles often fail to adequately stimulate the infant. Additionally, crib mobiles are not well suited for strollers. As strollers are mobile in nature, movement of the stroller may generate a swinging motion of a mobile, which may present an unsafe condition for an infant lying therein. Furthermore, crib mobiles exhibit an inability to readily change the pictorial source of visual stimulation as is necessary to optimize entertainment and education.
Books and flash cards allow for such a changing of the pictorial source of visual stimulation, but require the assistance of an older individual to hold for, and read to, the infant.
Further, infants in strollers can become bored when awake and cry out making it difficult for mothers to go shopping, or even go out to lunch.
Thus, there exists a need for a stroller-implemented device that will allow an infant in the stroller to be entertained and educated and not become bored so as to allow the mother to enjoy her activities while baby is with her.
Numerous innovations for child entertainment devices have been provided in the prior art that will be described below in chronological order to show advancement of the art and which are incorporated herein by reference thereto. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they each differ in structure and/or operation and/or purpose from the embodiments of the present invention in that they do not teach a transporter with integral media entertainment and education center for a baby.
(1) U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,204 to Struzer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,204 issued to Struzer on Jul. 8, 1997 in class 224 and subclass 547 teaches a portable, attachable, light-weight, encased entertainment unit, adapted for mounting onto moving vehicles. The encasement box of the entertainment unit is equipped to fit onto corresponding modes of attachment, which are secured on vehicle, and which are designed to receive the encasement box, and therefore cooperate with the mounting of the entertainment unit. The entertainment unit includes at least one of a television, a radio, a cassette player, a CD player, a VCR, and any other electronic equipment deemed suitable. The encasement box of the entertainment unit is designed with a carved-out, semi-circular portion, meant to fit over tubular clips fastened to a place of attachment via screws and nuts. Square protrusions fit into square rings hanging from straps secured to other square rings fastened onto a place of attachment via the curved extensions, screws, and nuts. A female-headed, snap-studded lid cover meant to snap onto a male-headed, snap-studded material strap secured via loops in a material onto curved extensions on each end of the strap fastened to place of attachment by screws and nuts. A carved-out, rectangular portion onto which straps holding clip-attached rectangular rings loop onto. The clips meant to hook onto rings fastened onto place of attachment via their curved extensions, screws, and nuts. Adjustment apparatus are also included in all attachment modes to facilitate adaptation of the entertainment unit to a number of different heights.(2) U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,527 to Struzer.U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,527 issued to Struzer on Jan. 6, 1998 in class 224 and subclass 547 teaches a portable, attachable, light-weight, encased entertainment unit, adapted for mounting onto moving vehicles. The encasement box of the entertainment unit is equipped to fit onto corresponding modes of attachment, which are secured on vehicle, and which are designed to receive the encasement box, and therefore cooperate with the mounting of the entertainment unit. The entertainment unit includes at least one of a television, a radio, a cassette player, a CD player, a VCR, and any other electronic equipment deemed suitable. The encasement box of the entertainment unit is designed with a carved-out, semi-circular portion, meant to fit over tubular clips fastened to a place of attachment via screws and nuts. Square protrusions fit into square rings hanging from straps secured to other square rings fastened onto a place of attachment via the curved extensions, screws, and nuts. A female-headed, snap-studded lid cover meant to snap onto a male-headed, snap-studded material strap secured via loops in a material onto curved extensions on each end of the strap fastened to place of attachment by screws and nuts. A carved-out, rectangular portion onto which straps holding clip-attached rectangular rings loop onto. The clips meant to hook onto rings fastened onto place of attachment via their curved extensions, screws, and nuts. Adjustment apparatus are also included in all attachment modes to facilitate adaptation of the entertainment unit to a number of different heights.(3) U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,208 to Fulop.U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,208 issued to Fulop on Mar. 16, 1999 in class 434 and subclass 365 teaches a method for teaching and entertaining infants while lying on their back in a stroller with a hood. The method include first, attaching a planar member suitable for displaying visual images to an infant while the infant is lying on his back in the stroller and for mounting on an inside cover of a stroller hood to the stroller hood in such a way as to be within the visual field of the infant while the infant is lying on the back in the stroller, and second, using apparatus for attaching the planar member to the inside of the stroller hood.(4) United States Patent Application Publication Number 2004/0259070 to Goodstein.United States Patent Application Publication Number 2004/0259070 published to Goodstein on Dec. 23, 2004 in class 434 and subclass 428 teaches child/infant play and entertainment devices, including electronic displays providing applications of display technology to the child/infant toy and entertainment industry. Flexible displays are used in infant items requiring safety measures, such as no sharp corners, hard structures, or breakable parts. Battery powered devices provide portability and convenience, and remote programming connections are employed to provide wired or wireless reprogramming of the appearance and/or behavior of the child/infant play or entertainment device. Sound features may also be incorporated in synchrony with the visual display for further enhancing the play or entertainment experience.(5) U.S. Pat. No. 6,960,171 to Sanders.U.S. Pat. No. 6,960,171 issued to Sanders on Nov. 1, 2005 in class 600 and subclass 558 teaches an infant eye trainer mountable on a baby bottle for strengthening and developing infant eyesight. The device utilizes interchangeable media producing an image on a display, which may be viewed by the infant while drinking from the bottle. A variety of images designed to improve, strengthen, and facilitate infant eyesight development—both physically and cognitively—are selected for display. The device mounts onto the end of a baby bottle, thus placing it within an infant's focal range. The device may also utilize audiovisual stimuli to further develop infant eyesight and cognition.(6) U.S. Pat. No. 6,979,004 to Otterlee et alU.S. Pat. No. 6,979,004 issued to Otterlee et al. on Dec. 27, 2005 in class 280 and subclass 33.993 teaches a child carrier, including a seat portion including a seat, a backrest, and a floor. The child carrier further includes a substantially rigid body, at least partially surrounding and supporting the seat portion. The rigid body also includes substantially solid side surfaces, and at least partially defines a panel. In addition, the child carrier provides a plurality of wheels supporting the body, and a electronic device supported by the body.
It is apparent that numerous innovations for child entertainment devices have been provided in the prior art that are adapted to be used. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the embodiments of the present invention as heretofore described, namely, a transporter with integral media entertainment and education center for a baby.